


Canary

by Oph3lia



Category: Big Hero 6 (2014)
Genre: Hidashi if you squint, the fire happens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-26
Updated: 2015-04-26
Packaged: 2018-03-25 22:10:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3826816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oph3lia/pseuds/Oph3lia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>His last breath was one of agony</p>
            </blockquote>





	Canary

 

 

_'This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but a whimper' - **T S Elliot**_

.  
.  
.

Soon Tadashi will wish they'd just gone home. He'd wish he hadn't pulled Hiro away from the others with a nod of the head, he'd wish he hadn't walked with him, side by side to the little bridge, blue under then moons beams, he'd wish he hadn't stopped there, in ear shot, practically in sight of what was to come. But soon is not now, now is him walking away and Hiro trailing after him like an unsuspecting lamb to the slaughter. They stand side by side, together like they always should be, and watch their future, or at least what they think to be there future: the robotics lab, translucent glass shining under the stars. They know they are going to change the world, together they will be unstoppable.

_Breathe..._

Tadashi casts a knowing look down to his little brother who has pressed himself against the railing, amber eyes alight with such energy and potential he feels his heart swell. They've made it, with the knucklehead back on track nothing could possibly go wrong. So far, everything is going according to plan, at least to the masked mans plan whose lighter is thrown carelessly into an experimental chemical set. People won't notice at first, copper dying the flames a majestic blue, they'll think it's all part of the display and not the black spot it is.

_Just breathe..._

Finally Hiro's eyes meet his, wide, doe like... _beautiful_. Tadashi can't look away, no, he can't see anything else, he never has and never will, Hiro is his world, his centre of gravity - Tadashi is merely a natural satellite with the privilege of watching a stars birth. He knows Hiro will out shine him one day, he knows he will just become the dust of a super nova, but he doesn't care. Anything. Anything for Hiro.

_In through the nose..._

Neither of them know how much this moment will mean in the ever present future, as their hands collide, skin fusing, close enough to share ions, whole elements between their fingertips. Together, like they always should be.

_And out through the mouth..._

Eternity passes in a second, and just like that, it over, the candle goes out with the sound of screaming. Together they run, feet falling in sync, a symphony only they know. They push through the crowd, heroic and heading to save the man that filled the void Tadashi's father had left behind. They reach the steps, side by side, together, like it always should be. But then Tadashi sees the flames, truly sees them, roaring and beckoning him forwards like the tongue of a hungry demon.

_Come on, breathe..._

He's met this demon before. Just once, when Hiro was fast asleep and too young to remember, when Tadashi watched his parents burn alive before him in the jaws of metal. He's met this demon before and he knows what it means for Hamada's, for himself. And he hesitates. Hiro doesn't. Hiro was too young to recognise the monster before him, enticing him from the knowing protection of his brother. Tadashi feels it then, the skin splitting, the void widening. Together the Hamada's are unstoppable...

_Come on kid, just breathe..._

Apart, they might as well be cannon fodder.

_No..._

Tadashi, eyes wild reaches out, hooking his fingers into the fabric of Hiro's trademark hoodie and tugs. But Hiro simply slides out of it, looking back his brother over his shoulder with a cheeky grin as if to say 'what-you-gonna-do-about-it?' and disappearing into the buildings ulcer.

_No..._

Without a thought he is diving after him, long legs carrying him faster than Hiro's ever could, clutching the hoodie like a life line. He can stop this, he can stop this now, but just as he enters the building an oxygen tank bursts under the heat and the resulting explosion pushes them farther and farther away from each other.

...

When Tadashi opens his eyes, he sees white, but then colours start fading back at the edges of his vision until he's confronted with his nightmare. The building before him is still burning, cooking slowly, but he knows what's happened. In his ears all he can here is a high pitched ringing, like a sonic deterrent, people are crowding around him, shining lights into his eyes and moving their mouths rapidly as if weaving syllables, but he hears nothing. His own lips move, forcing a sound so broken up his throat, everyone around him freezes. But he can't hear. He can't hear his own voice chanting one word over and over and over again, like a madman's prayer, frenzied and insane.

_No. No, no, no..._

He doesn't feel the blood run down his cheek, tears of a ruptured ear drum, he doesn't feel the heat blistering his skin, he doesn't even feel the debris biting into his right arm, no, not as he clutches to a blue hoodie, shouting out in his own silence for the boy that's never coming back.

...

 

Like a canary, the coroner had said, Hiro's lungs were too small. The fire had burned a track down his trachea turning his cells to charcoal and cooking him from the inside out, while toxic gases ate up his preciously limited capacity.

His last breath was one of agony.

.  
.  
.

_Breathe..._

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading~  
> (psst feedback is always appreciated)


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